Clark County GOP director running for state party chair

Christian Berrigan said Friday that he plans to run for chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. The opening became available after Kirby Wilbur resigned to take a job with Young America’s Foundation.

Berrigan,operations director of the Clark County GOP, said he decided to run because he thinks Republican leaders at the state level can learn from recent political changes that have happened in Clark County.

In the Clark County GOP, “there’s a lot of positive things that have been done, and those things should be showcased to the state committee,” he said.

Berrigan was involved in a movement last summer to include more conservative voices in the Clark County Republican Party. He encouraged Republicans who supported Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum in the presidential primaries to join forces and run for precinct committee officer position in Clark County.

The new PCOs then helped elected new leadership within the county’s Republican Party, ousting leaders that were less philosophically conservative.

Berrigan said he’s heard of at least two others running for state GOP chair, but that he didn’t think the field of candidates had settled just yet. The election will take place Aug. 24 at a Spokane meeting of the party’s state committee, which includes 117 members from across the state.

The last time a Clark County resident was elected as GOP chair was in 2000, when state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, was picked for the job.

Stevie Mathieu

Stevie Mathieu is a political writer at The Columbian. Contact her at 360-735-4523 or stevie.mathieu@columbian.com or www.facebook.com/reportermathieu or www.twitter.com/col_politics.